I'd like to run a test battle, with just this. At the moment, limited equipment, and the only unit type is basic infantry.

You'll have... call it, 1000 money (-M-) to build your combat squads with, for a simple and direct 1v1 combat. I don't feel up to trying to handle more than two commanders at a time just yet. I'll roll for the variations in individual infantry, since those are already going to be random.

I'm being a bit slow about actually coming to decisions on the hard mechanics, but I'm thinking a big factor is going to be tiered weaponry of some kind. From a comparatively cheap rifle with iron-sights, down to the monster at the bottom.

There's also going to be mucking about with your standard drone units, and rules for equipment with various queens... lots of things need adjustment.

Meet the Discount Drones CDX-6 models, showing off a not-so modest schoolgirl secretary outfit, and a halloween sort of costume.

Combat Drone model CDX-6

The primary issue with adjusting to the changing face of the battlefield is that many options for deployment are extremely difficult to locate and enlist. The concern with Tank Queens is that they are, of course, extremely expensive to manufacture.

The decision to cut corners in order to reduce the price was obvious, and began with the standard Commando unit, which was immediately stripped of the majority of its armor, redundant sub-systems, modification capability, and had all the materials for its framework replaced with cheap recycled metals, and external aesthetics entirely stripped.

The result, the CDX-1, was a gangly and twitching mess of exposed and sparking component parts which could do itself extreme and crippling structural damage simply by attempting to move improperly. Rumor states that upon activation of personality matrices, the model simply screamed wordlessly and without cessation until being forcibly shut down. However, there is no evidence which exists to support this claim.

The following attempts of CDX 2-5 proved little better, failing to meet the required balance which would satisfy both field commanders and ledger managers. It was at this time that the originator of Tank Queen schematics took note of the efforts and decided that a scaled down model was an excellent idea, and immediately set to work developing an affordable drone model.

However, he still categorically, and at great volume and incandescence, refused to design, or allow the design of, male external aesthetics or programming.

The end result was model CDX-6, a reduced Queen model which, while lacking any specific battle focus or high-performance weaponry, could still equip and functionally use a wide variety of general armaments.

However, cutting costs had drawbacks, and while the CDX-6 features a highly compressed and miniaturized series of internal workings, reducing stature to an average of only 1.2 meters, armoring is minimal and nearly non-existent. As well, there are severe weight restrictions on what this model can functionally carry and utilize, and in response to the compression of design modifications are universally installed to maintain adequate battlefield mobility.

As such, customization upon initial production is limited to external aesthetics, the CDX-6 fails to offer multiple tactical options, and they will easily be destroyed by serious battlefield opposition. However, the strategic commander on a budget will often find more guns pointed in the correct direction to be an adequate solution to the majority of concerns, and they can benefit greatly from linking systems into a network with more specialized, and expensive, Tank Queens.

Less scrupulous commanders will utilize the 'Discount Drones' as disposable infantry, however, deploying them deliberately into situations where they cannot reasonably expect to survive intact, either accepting losses in exchange for damaging the opposition, or simply to draw fire away from more valuable units. Additionally, a CDX-6 can be decommissioned and stripped down for parts to help repair other Queens.

Often, aware of these potential fates and designed to prioritize self-preservation so long as it does not contradict a direct order from a superior officer, CDX-6 models will go out of their way to both make themselves extremely and irreplacably useful in functions outside of the battlefield, and to form attachments with people who make tactical decisions. This may involve as little as not objecting to eccentric aesthetic choices, or inappropriate social tactics and illicit fraternization. Less scrupulous commanders will often take advantage of these efforts and then utilize disposable infantry tactics in spite of it.

Conventional wisdom holds that drones under such commanders, who see the writing on the wall, are the number one source of rogue queens. Nothing exists to prove this beyond circumstantial evidence, however.